When electoral ordeal strengthens PDP governors’ bond

While the waiting lasted, it was an ordeal; not only for the governors who were directly affected, but also for the entire family of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Before the intervention of the Supreme Court, there was already a slanging match between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the PDP. The umbrella party had accused the broom party of working so hard to use untoward means to take over the states it (PDP) won.

From Abia to Akwa Ibom, and from Rivers to Taraba State, celebration filled the air last week as PDP rolled out the drums over its victories at the Supreme Court.

The PDP narrowly escaped with the skin of its teeth in the gubernatorial tussle that went up to the Supreme Court.

In Rivers, the contention was stiff as the All Progressives Congress (APC) in control of the central government had, through John Odigie-Oyegun, its national chairman, sworn to take over the oil-rich state. The state was strategic to the APC as one of its most-priced ministers, Rotimi Amaechi, hails from there. The thinking in the APC fold was that Rivers would be of great economic importance to the party. However, the dream of the party was to burst with a stunning judgment delivered on January 27, 2016 by the Supreme Court, nullifying the decision of the Appeal Court that had ordered a re-election.

As if that was not enough shocker, the Supreme Court again, on February 4 in Abuja upheld the elections of Udom Emmanuel and Okezie Ikpeazu, as governors of Akwa Ibom and Abia, respectively.

Before the judgment, permutations had been rife that Emmanuel was going to lose his seat as the opposition in the state was confident that the veracity of allegation of a faulty process that brought him to power would never be controverted.

Many of those in the governor’s camp were also jittery, as they were not really sure of the independence of the Supreme Court judges and the neutrality of the august court in the matter. They had expected that the best they could get would be a re-run.

In Abia State, the apprehension was palpable. The opposition party, the All Progressive People’s Alliance (APGA) was already in celebration mood. Its members had begun to clink glasses, saying it was a matter of days before they began to call the shots at the Government House along Banks’ Road in Umuahia.

The Court of Appeal that sat in Owerri, had on Thursday, December 31, 2015 given the PDP supporters in Abia a bleak crossover night (into the New Year). The apex court had, in its ruling, sacked Governor Ikpeazu, ordering immediate swearing in of the APGA gubernatorial candidate, Alex Otti. The judges, anchoring their decision on the allegation of over-voting in three local governments in the state that were Okezie’s strongholds, ordered total cancellation of the results obtained from the three councils.

Although the governor exuded confidence that the erudite jurists at the Supreme Court would reverse the Appeal Court ruling, BDSUNDAY had it on good authority that the Abia chief executive officer had some adrenaline rise, knowing full well that the law is an ass. However, his chances were bolstered by a welter of condemnation that greeted the December 31st ruling, especially from some eminent senior advocates of Nigeria who dismissed the exercise as a sheer-bunkum.

Last Thursday also, the Supreme Court completed the circle by upholding the election of Darius Ishaku as the governor of Taraba State, which was also the verdict of the Appeal Court. Ishaku’s election was challenged by Aisha Jumai Alhassan of the APC, who also is currently the women affairs minister in the Buhari administration.

Nothing else captured the level of happiness of the PDP governors and the party’s national leadership better than the elaborate thanksgiving service hosted by Udom Emmanuel last Wednesday in Uyo, which attracted his colleagues from other states.

With the successful outing of the PDP at the Supreme Court, the party is now sure-footed to play the opposition role in the present dispensation.

Today, the PDP is in control of 12 states- one third of all the states in the country (12 out of 36). They are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta and Enugu. Others are Ebonyi, Ekiti, Gombe, Ondo, Rivers and Taraba. Four of them are richly endowed with crude oil deposits.
An obviously elated Uche Secondus, acting chairman of PDP, who addressed the crowd in Uyo, said: “We dedicate today (Wednesday) to God to the strength that he has given PDP. PDP will come back with strength and we warn the APC-led government that Nigeria should not be a police state where people are harassed and stakeholders are being intimidated.”

Apparently chiding the APC, he said: “Nigeria is in dire need of PDP, you can see the difference. Eight months ago, the exchange rate was N160, today it is N313. Eight months ago, vessels of goods and services were competing to enter into our harbor.

“The economy is sliding; it is getting to a point of collapse. The political situation of the country is in coma and we challenge the APC-led government that it is time to realise that they need the people more than they need the guns because we are not military.”

Ayo Fayose, Ekiti State governor, in his remarks at the gathering, said if members of PDP work together, they would get back their inheritance.

“If we put our house together, if we stay together, if we put the past behind us, we will take back our inheritance, it is our inheritance taken by deception, taken by propaganda, taken by hidden agenda,” he said.

Hailing the Supreme Court for upholding the elections of all its governors, the PDP Governors’ Forum, had in a statement said the verdicts had reinforced the belief that the judiciary remains the hope of the common man.

The statement signed by Osaro Onaiwu, coordinator of the Forum, stated that “what the apex court has done was to save the country from being balkanised by the APC in its avowal to undermine the integrity of the courts and jettison the sacredness of the ballot box”.

Onaiwu said the PDP would continue to work to strengthen the country’s legal process as well as democratic norms.

While congratulating the governors for their victories, he expressed confidence that they would continue to work hard to improve the lives of their people, which he said the party had not failed to do over the years.

Beaming with smiles, Theodore Orji, immediate governor of Abia State and senator representing Abia Central, said: “The verdict of the Supreme Court on Wednesday, February 3, 2016, has laid to rest, accusations and counter accusations, most of them unfounded. The tendon attendant to the falsehood got to a breaking point for most of us who have not experienced this before. I was never perturbed because the truth is a fortress that every honest man should rely on.

“As stated in my previous release, I am an unshakable believer in the judiciary as the hope of all citizens. Elections have come and gone, all Abians should join hands and build.

“We have to take it as irrevocable fact that there can only be one governor at a time. Based on present reality, Victor Okezie Ikpeazu is the elected. All Abians on all sides of the divide, irrespective of party affiliations, should support Ikpeazu.”

Ike Ekweremadu, deputy Senate president, said the apex court’s verdicts on the election petitions “were not only resounding victories for the masses of Abia and Akwa Ibom States, but also for the nation’s democracy in general.

“By these verdicts, the Supreme Court has once more reaffirmed the supremacy of the ballot box over might and propaganda. I commend the court for upholding the PDP as the overwhelming choice of the people of Abia and Akwa Ibom States, and urge my two brothers, Okezie Ikpeazu and Emmanuel Udom, to continue with their uncommon transformation of their respective states even as they extend the olive branch to all political interests in the state.”

Indeed, with the state of affairs in the country, analysts are of the opinion that before long there would be alignment and re-alignment of forces that may work in PDP interest ahead of the next general election in 2019.

It is believed that with the PDP now settled down after the legal battles, it will begin to play the role of a credible opposition in a more intelligent and mature way.

 

Zebulon Agomuo